In The End
by AutumnsFey
Summary: Before the war, they had been torn apart. During the war, they had found family in each other. After the war, they died. Now, the stubbornness of their Uchiha claimed a second chance for them, and they are back together. This time, it won't end like before. TimeTravel.


**Blood** **splattered haphazardly on the ground with every labored breath he took**.

Trembling broken fingers clawed desperately at the dirt beneath, a futile attempt to move. Dulled blue eyes stared dazedly into the general direction from which he could barely feel the two familiar, painfully weak, flickering chakra signatures. Ever so slowly, they approached. His dry blood-stained lips turned up into a shaky strained smile.

A taller heavier body sunk down on his right side.

The other, smaller one, collapsed to his left.

It was silent. Only their labored breath was heard, his louder than the others, rattling painfully from the blood welling up in his collapsed lungs.

" Dobe …"

A single tear of regret escaped him at the scratchy sound of that familiar moniker and he willed his broken body to lean trustingly into the cold slender hand pressed against his cooling cheek.

Only a few weeks … they had only been together again, been Team Seven again, for a few measly weeks, and already – already they were everything for each other. Having Sasuke back …

It was a feeling beyond words.

None of them had even dared to hope to ever have someone so near and dear to them again, siblings in all but blood that were always there, protecting, supporting, relying; a ludicrous illusion buried years ago … but here they were.

The remains of a team fallen to ruin through pigheadedness, ignorance and vengeance.

The avenger, the idiot and the fan-girl.

Labels of a faraway past, gone but not forgotten. Never forgotten.

The traitor, the hero and the medic.

Labels laid to rest only months ago, burned to ashes like the home they once upon a time shared and served.

The second coming of the Sannin. Three friends victorious.

A little family dying together..

… the now, blessed and cursed.

His smile turned sadder as a smaller feminine hand settled on his pained chest only for the young kunoichi to break down silently, crying, choking, her bitter tears soaking his tattered shirt as her shaking hands grabbed his trembling ones and she burrowed her face in his chest.

She was burned out.

… her chakra flickered weakly.

He closed his eyes.

Who would have thought that it would end like this? The three of them together once more? Closer than ever before? Exceeding the bonds of being merely a team and having come together, in the horror that was war, as a family in all but blood?

As terrible as it was …

… Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto was happy.

He was glad.

If he had to choose a way to die, if he had been allowed to decide in which arms to die, then he would choose this. With his two most important people, the best friend and rival who had become his stoic older brother figure, hard to read but so genuine and protective in his intentions to them, and the former crush who had become the older sister he had never known he wanted but always needed, there to heal and to set right his knuckleheaded skull.

The only regrets he had were the dead bodies of their families, friends and comrades surrounding them, needlessly fallen in the line of duty, killed in action to protect the world burning around them from the madman that was Uchiha Madara.

… had been Uchiha Madara.

They had won.

… a hollow victory.

Those still alive were broken. Those missing dead. Those dead not even properly buried. The price of victory was too high. In fleeting moments of weakness, of regret and hopelessness, the treacherous thought had sometimes taken root that this just wasn't worth it, that he didn't even understand why? Why fight? Why lose? Why hurt? Why watch everything he held dear be ripped away? Discarded like yesterday's trash? Why, why, why?

 _Was it worth it?_

His life, he would have gladly given.

Sasuke had said it perfectly: A human sacrifice willing to sacrifice itself on the altar of its torturers. He had accepted it.

But sacrificing his friends? His family? … no. As horrible as it may sound, he would have chosen his precious people above the world, and then simply continued on to win the war without endangering them – if they just hadn't been so stubborn!

He had lost everyone but his first teammates. And Naruto clung to them, clung to Sasuke and Sakura, those two being all he had left in this world – until the very end. He knew that just as he wouldn't survive their death, they wouldn't survive his. They had become each other's anchor in a world of cruel madness.

He had done his best to survive. He had.

But Naruto had known from the very moment in which Madara had ripped Kurama out of the seal that he would die.

A Jinchuriki couldn't live without his or her Bijuu; at least not once they had reached and completed synchronization and achieved actual harmony within their chakra shroud, deepening their bond on a fundamental level. All He had been able to hope as the Bijuu he called a friend had been cruelly taken, was that at the very least his sister and brother would live on.

Tears escaped his closed eyes.

He could feel them dying.

" Naruto …", Sakura sobbed, her voice breaking.

He weakly pressed her trembling fingers in a motion of reassurance.

As if it would do much good … but he had to. He had to give them everything he could. They were … his.

" You are such a dobe", Sasuke cursed, pain evident in every word.

That he was ...

" Don't talk", Sakura demanded panicked as Naruto opened his mouth to reply, cutting him off before he could utter the first syllable.

If he had the strength, he would have fondly shaken his head. She truly was a medic at heart.

" Y-you", he whispered, choking on his own blood as it filled his mouth, coughing up more and more of the red liquid freely dripping out of the corners of his mouth. He had to say it. _He had to_." A-are m-my family. I l-love you both."

A terrible wail escaped Sakura's throat as she tightened her grip on him, the remains of her dwindling chakra flickering in agony. Sasuke swore violently, pressing his forehead against Naruto's.

The blonde breathed shakily, remembering another time, another battle, another day of blood and loss and nothing but a scratched-over hitai-ate left in the pouring rain and just the barest feeling of the others forehead and salty tears a memory.

" You are not allowed to die!"

Only Sasuke could finally find his ability to use words when they were all just barely clinging to this world.

Only Sasuke.

Sakura hiccupped.

" S-sorry … Sakura … Sasuke …"

He was so sorry to hurt them.

… it was one of these things he never wanted to happen. But …

… he just was too weak to protest anymore.

A part of him was ready to sleep.

" …"

Naruto smiled weakly as he was gently hoisted up and held against the solid lean chest of his big brother in all but blood. No matter how many unresolved issues still lay between them, no matter how much they never dared to address ...

He was home.

Dying but finally home.

" No."

If he still had the strength he would have blinked. As it was, he was powerless as he felt Sasuke position his wounded arms to form hand seals.

His blood soaked Sasuke's torn clothes, painting them both in bright red. His heart fluttered as it began to slow.

" Sasuke?"

Naruto heard his big sister as if through a fog, her voice distant and echoing.

" Come here., Sakura. We will not die. I won't allow it."

What determination … that … that was the Sasuke who had taken a deadly hail of Senbon at the age of thirteen to protect an aggravating teammate he wasn't even sure he liked. That was the Sasuke who broke all conceptions of himself to reach for the impossible and only came out stronger and tougher.

Naruto faintly noticed Sakura settle on his other side, both of them somehow touching Sasuke, the pinkette carefully holding the blonde in her arms, brushing over his golden mob.

" I did a lot of wrong things. I'm not a good man. But if there is something that makes me good, it is you two. And I will burn the world to cinder before I lose either of you", Sasuke spoke, his voice uncharacteristically fierce. " As much as I hate how abominable my clan had become before their destruction, there exists one technique, forbidden as it is, that only the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan or a Rinnegan can successfully cast. It will do the impossible and give us a second chance … there is nothing here for us anymore."

Naruto barely felt Sakura nod.

" Hold on tight", Sasuke ordered, the quick motions of hand seals slightly jarring Naruto and strangling a pained moan from his lips.

As strange as it sounded, as impossible as it must seem – Sakura and Naruto did trust Sasuke not only with their own but each other's life.

They were Team Seven. They were their own little dysfunctional family.

" Here goes nothing", Sasuke whispered strained.

The black-haired man's hands stilled in a last hand seal and he released his chakra, activating the forbidden kinjutsu.

Darkness swiped them away.

One last breath.

One last heartbeat.

It was the End.

 **But was it their End?**

 **Their** **future was hell.** It was death, destruction and despair. In a war-torn world, where impossibilities and atrocities were the dreaded norm and possibilities mere distractions, three children stuck together.

In a way, history was repeating itself.

Yahiko, Nagato, Konan.

Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura.

Not even the heaven's themselves could weep enough tears to truly express their bottomless sorrow.

In their future, they won the Fourth Great Shinobi War against Uchiha Madara, Tobi alias Uchiha Obito, the Black Zetsu and their army of mindless slaves, slaves forced from death, once friend and more to those now fighting them. It was such a horrible sight, seeing families, friends and comrades, alive and dead, kill each other.

Horror. Cruelty. Devastation.

After hope was lost, after the price paid was more than anyone had been willing to give, they finally defeated Madara and his twisted accomplices before he could achieve his fucked-up _Tsuki no Me_ plan, but it was merely an end result. The way to this hollow meaningless victory demanded too much, took too many.

Ninjas, Civilians, Children, Adults, Elders, Ninken …

… there was scarcely anyone left alive.

There was certainly no one left alive for Sakura, Sasuke or Naruto to call precious anymore; no one but each other. Everyone else … was just gone.

And they were dying.

But not even fate, bitch that she loved to be, could have foreseen the force of nature and cosmically headache an Uchiha's stubbornness and love would prove to be, because as Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama, the former Shodaime and Nidaime of Konohagakure no Sato, had so rightfully explained – it wasn't hate that fueled the Sharingan …

… but deep genuine love.

And Sasuke loved his teammates, his adopted family, the only ones always accepting and trusting him without question, no matter his mistakes or stand-offish habits.

It was this sincere love in his heart and soul that wouldn't accept his adopted little brother's death.

No. The smaller blonde wasn't allowed to just … die.

Sasuke refused to accept it.

If the future held no hope …

… than they would just have to change the past!

 **The wheels of time came to a grinding halt.**

A world held its breath.

Golden-orange, bluish-green and violet-blue energy swirled protectively around each other, gently intermingling and sinking securely between the old gears.

One heartbeat. Two heartbeats. Three heartbeats.

And the wheels of time turned again.

Backwards.

 **In a traditional Japanese house belonging to the infamous Uchiha Clan Head Uchiha Fugaku,** a six year old black-haired boy woke up breathlessly, unnaturally sharp black eyes snapping open as they expressionless took in the detestably familiar surroundings.

Closing his eyes, the child held its breath and concentrated on the taste of those two intimately familiar chakra signatures, smirking accomplished as he faintly felt them, those trusting and glowing energies gently entangled with his own, like a glowing beacon in the dark of the night beckoning him home. Relief flooded his mind.

It had worked.

He had actually done it.

They were back.

Together.

Uchiha Sasuke opened his eyes again, and revealed black on red spinning in a familiar kaleidoscope-shape in one eye while the other was occupied by black rings expanding themselves in a wave-like pattern on a grey-lilac sclera completely consuming the eyeball.

He smirked.

It was only just beginning.

 **Halfway across town, in a normal civilian middle class home,** the owners' six year old daughter shot up distressed, a choked scream dying silently on her lips as wide pale-green eyes incredulously took in the nostalgically pink walls of her old bedroom, a room she had known to be long since gone.

Dainty pale hands pressed against trembling pink lips as reality sat in and she recalled the last hazy moments of … their former future. Sasuke had … he had succeeded. They had succeeded.

She swallowed a hysterical laugh, rocking forth and back. It was a reality that should be impossible, even among them who strove on achieving the impossible; it was just too much. She blinked uncomprehendingly as long pink strands fell into her face and nearly sneered at the sight. How long had it been since she had been that self-absorbed useless little thing?

… a pretty little puppet good for nothing but endangering her boys?

Not this time around.

This time …

… she would be a burden to neither of her two boys.

This time …

… they would be able to unquestioningly rely on her.

Taking a deep breath, she lifted her small hands and focused chakra into them, a wide grin slipping onto her young face as the green shine of her chakra scalpels lit up the darkened room.

Haruno Sakura was ready.

Let the show begin.

 **Situated in the deepest slums of Konohagakure no Sato were the dirtiest and fundamentally broken apartment buildings no one in their right mind would willingly live in,** and in one of the more direly desecrated ones a tiny five year old boy awoke alone on his ratty mattress with a strangled sob escaping his chapped lips, wide baby-blue eyed glazed with tears.

Two thin wet trails stained the whiskered boy's hollowed cheeks.

He … he couldn't stop crying.

His gaze fell on an empty instant ramen cup and he looked blearily around, his breath catching as he caught sight of the moldy walls and broken bare furniture.

This … he was … oh Kami-sama. He was back in his old apartment.

The little boy broke down crying even harder.

He didn't knew if it was grief or happiness or a convoluted mess of the two that let him choke on his sobs and cry those endless tears, but he honestly was out of fucks to give; if that hated war had taught him something intimately besides the sorrow of loss than it was to stand proudly no matter the circumstance and accept his perceived weakness so it may become a true strength.

… even if, at this moment, he had no idea as to how to do that.

In truth, he didn't even know where he should take the strength for another day from. The prospect of going on ... of seeing those he had buried … those he hadn't been able to properly bury … alive again …

All that kept him from finally despairing and succumbing to the grief and overflow of suffocating undiscernible emotions in his heart were the weak but unmistakable chakra signatures of his older siblings, ripe with the inimitable taste only the future could have given them, powerful, experienced, weary; thankfully proving that he wasn't alone.

That his family was with him.

Trembling like a leave, he laid one tiny bony hand on his stomach and called cautiously upon his chakra. A beautiful smile lit up his small face, nearly as sunny as his bright blonde hair, as his hand shimmered with the accustomed golden-orange chakra shroud and a burst of comforting warmth from within his seal reassured him more than any words could ever have.

Kurama …

Maybe, just maybe …

Maybe they could do it right, this time around.

Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto gently stroked over the undamaged seal on his belly, still honed reassuringly into his friends' energies as he closed his tired eyes, tears still rolling down his pale hollow cheeks.

Tears he recognized.

Tears of hope.

Yes, this time around they would set everything right.

And they would start now.

 **Three friends.**

Three teammates.

Three Siblings.

Three Children.

Time had been reversed and those gone once again walked this world, unaware of their former fates. Fates those three haunted children wouldn't allow happening. They would reset the world on a course that everyone could accept and live with, a course that while subjected to the rules of Nature would also promise their precious peoples' continued good health and existence. There were to many mistakes made by to many players for them to correct all that happened, to prevent every evil and every pain everyone had to endure, but they would not surrender without giving their damnest in creating a future not only worth dying but living for. And living, they knew, took a lot more bravery than dying.

Some things they could correct now, some things would take time, for others they had to wait for the necessary players to accumulate in their vicinity. But their goals, while roughly devised, were clear; they just had to put them into action.

To save an older disillusioned brother from the dire consequences of a misplaced sense of duty.

To rescue a younger adopted brother from the cruel claws of malicious mistreatment.

To prevent a clans ill-fated treacherous misconduct and their subsequent annihilation.

To protect their loved ones, the village they adored and most importantly each other.

To spare their broken mentors heartbreak and death.

To be there for each other, always.

To guard and shelter each other.

To support and care for each other.

To win a devastating war before it truly could begin.

To correct the mistakes that destroyed their former future.

In this time, in these bodies, they may have been only children, but in their hearts, souls, minds, power and skill …

… they were still Team Seven.

They were ready to take on the world one final time.

Because in the End …

… this …

… was only the Beginning.

 _~ The End ~_


End file.
